Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento will be in Brussels this Monday for a Eurogroup meeting, where he will present the “economic and financial policy priorities of the new government” to his eurozone counterparts.
At the first Eurogroup meeting he will attend after taking office at the beginning of April, the responsible Portuguese minister will “present the economic and financial policy priorities of the new Portuguese government” according to the agenda of the meeting.
The meeting of eurozone finance ministers will begin at 15:00 (local time minus one in Lisbon) with a discussion of the macroeconomic and fiscal situation of the single currency countries, in which European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will take part.
This will be followed by a debate, now in an inclusive format (with all countries of the European Union), on the Banking Union and the conclusion of the Capital Markets Union, as well as a dinner on this last topic, at which the situation with savings at European level will be discussed.
In these six weeks there had already been a previous meeting of the Eurogroup with a new leader after the elections on March 10, which brought victory to the Democratic Alliance (PSD, HDZ, PPM), but Portugal was represented by the Secretary of State for the Budget, José Maria Brandão de Brito, since the Minister of Finance was in Lisbon to discuss the government program.
In mid-April, the government approved in the Council of Ministers the overall reduction of the IRS, a “strong reduction” with a “total cost that, compared to 2023, amounts to a reduction of 1.539 million euros,” it said. Luis Montenegro during the presentation of the measure.
However, there have been several criticisms of the total amount referred to in this measure – since it takes into account what was already in place under the previous government of António Costa – to which the executive responded by stating that it is “true and indisputable ” “that the IRS cuts will result in a reduction of 1,500 million euros compared to 2023.
In early May, summing up the budget execution for the first three months of the year, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento reported that the deficit and debt unpaid by the previous socialist government reached 600 million euros in March.
“There was a surplus in January, a surplus of almost 1.2 billion euros. In February, that surplus fell to about 800 million, and in March it reached a deficit of almost 300 million,” a government official said.
According to Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, in March the budget execution reached a deficit of 259 million euros, while debts to suppliers increased by about 300 million euros.
“If we add to this almost 300 million deficit the increase in debts to suppliers – expenses that were incurred but not yet paid to companies – in the amount of 300 million between January and March, we get, in reality, a deficit of almost 600 million euros “, which is the result of “increased spending and many measures that have been taken in recent months, including after the elections on March 10,” the Minister of Finance said.
However, these claims were refuted by his colleague, socialist Fernando Medina.
This Eurogroup meeting will take place two days before the European Commission publishes its spring macroeconomic forecasts for the eurozone and the European Union.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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